Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt expects more than one billion devices, worldwide, will be running his company's Android software within a year. But the search giant's not stopping there.

Early on Thursday, Google released a giant update to the Maps application; its 'Street View' feature in particular. According to the company's blog, Street View is now:

" more comprehensive than ever before by launching our biggest ever update--doubling our number of special collections and updating over 250,000 miles of roads around the world. We're increasing Street View coverage in Macau, Singapore, Sweden, the U.S., Thailand, Taiwan, Italy, Great Britain, Denmark, Norway and Canada. And we're launching special collections in South Africa, Japan, Spain, France, Brazil and Mexico, among others."

Apple dropped Google Maps from the latest version of its iOS mobile operating system in a long-brewing corporate battle for supremacy. Google has hinted/promised a new, standalone version of Maps for iOS fans by the end of the year.

And, it doesn't stop there. Google also released an update for its Google+ application on Thursday. The new software adds improved support for iPhone 5/iOS 6 users as well as new features and a redesigned widget for Android lovers.

In an interview with AllThingsD, Schmidt reiterated his belief that the industry will soon be dominated by software platforms from what he's termed the "Gang of Four" - Google, Apple, Amazon ( AMZN) and Facebook ( FB).